Enemy Within
by Hannah554
Summary: A sequel to my first story Aftermath, a string of domestic violence attacks cause a lot of trouble for Mutant X. ShalBren and LexaJesse.
1. Chapter 1

So here's my second Mutant X Fanfiction, it's a sequel to my first one 'Aftermath'. I hope you all enjoy it, please read and review, let me know if you want me to write more.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters

Enemy Within

Chapter 1

Adam walked through the corridors of Sanctuary to find the team all sitting in the main room. Shalimar was sitting on Brennan's lap and Lexa was curled up on the sofa next to Jesse. Over the last few months had started to fell less like an outsider and more like a member of the team. He had resumed his role as the leader of Mutant X mostly because it was the most efficient use of his and everyone else's skills. The team had accepted him back quickly and seemed to have for the most part forgiven him for disappearing.

"Okay guys listen up" Adam said as he walked into the room and everyone turned to look at him. "I just got a call from one of our safe houses, a mutant called Sarah Clark is there, she said her husband just attacked her and she wants to speak to a member of the team face to face"

"What do we know about her and her husband?" Lexa asked moving slightly out of Jesse's arms.

"He's not a mutant, she's a telempath"

"Like Emma?" Shalimar asked

"Kind of but nowhere near as powerful, she can only sense the feelings of people she has a strong bond with" Adam replied.

"Like a husband, so why didn't she sense this guy was really a psycho?" Brennan asked.

"That's what you and Shalimar are going to find out; I want you to go meet her"

Brennan and Shalimar sat across from Sarah Clark who Brennan thought was scared out of her mind, not really surprising when you considered the man she trusted had just viciously attacked her. She looked a mess, cuts and bruises covered every inch of her skin that he could see, her lip was bust and she had a black eye.

"Look Sarah, I know this must be hard for you but you need to tell us what happened" Shalimar had been trying to get the woman to open up to her for the past 10 minutes.

"I got home from work and he was already there, which was unusual because he doesn't usually finish work until 5pm, it was only 3 o clock. I walked up to him and he slapped me across the face so hard I fell to the floor, when I tried to get back up he kicked me and he just kept hitting me and attacking and I managed to get free and I just ran. I came here and called Adam"

"Has he ever hit you before?" Brennan asked his blood was boiling, he could never understand how anyone could hurt someone who loved them like this.

"No that's just it; he's never so much as raised his voice to me before. He's always so gentle and caring, he knows all about who I really am and he never once even looked at me like I was freak, it was so out of character. There was something else though, when he attacked me I could sense pure rage and anger in him but… it wasn't his"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I could sense the rage and the anger coming from him but it was someone else, someone using him to channel their anger"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Positive, that anger was not coming from my husband"

Shalimar and Brennan walked over to where Adam was sitting at the computer.

"Hey how did it go?"

"She said it wasn't her husband"  
"What?"

"She said when her husband attacked her she could sense pure rage and anger but it wasn't coming from him, she said someone else was channelling it through him" Brennan summarised.

"We think it's a mutant, can any mutants do that?"

"Let's find out" Adam said and turned to the computer.

"Where are Jesse and Lexa?"

"Whilst you were gone we got another call from a mutant who says her mutant boyfriend attacked her, Jesse and Lexa went to check that out, I checked out police reports, in the last 12 hours 8 women have made reports that their partners have attacked them, seven of those men were mutants and so were 2 of the women including the one who was attacked by her non mutant boyfriend"

"So we have two common denominators" Lexa said as she and Jesse walked into the room "In every case it's a male attacking their better half and there is at least one mutant in every relationship".


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all the reviews, here's chapter 2, I hope you enjoy it. Please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters

Chapter 2

The computer behind Adam beeped and he turned and transferred the file to the larger monitor so everyone could see it.

"Melissa Greystone, has the power to read and influence the minds of men"

"Why just men?" Brennan asked sounding slightly offended.

"Chemical and hormonal differences"

"How do we find her and stop her?"

"I don't know, looks like she dropped off the map her file ends 13 years ago, she lived in New York, worked at a clothing store, Shalimar, Lexa, you two go and check that out see if she's still working there if not maybe they know where she went".

Adam watched as both women nodded and walked out of the room and he turned back to Brennan and Jesse.

"So how is she finding her victims?"

"That's a good question but until we figure that out you two are staying in sanctuary"

"She may be able to get to us anyway"

"Maybe but until we know let's not give her any more of an opportunity than we have to"

"Jesse, hey bro where are you?"

"I'm here" Jesse said as he walked around the corner and found Brennan looking for him. "What's up?"

"Nothing, just wondering where you were"

"You're bored aren't you?"

"Yeah, we're stuck here in sanctuary and are girlfriends are out having all the fun, it wouldn't be so bad if they were stuck in here with us"

"Yeah I know what you mean" Jesse thought back on the last few months, they had been so busy they hadn't had time to be bored. Since they had rescued Adam from the dominion they had had to deal with all the New Mutant problems that had been building up over the time they had been focused on the dominion. Jesse and Brennan had managed to build a new Helix, which the girls were currently flying to New York and life had been getting back to normal.

"You wanna shoot some hoops?" Brennan asked

"Yeah sounds good"

Shalimar and Lexa walked into the store and looked around them; there was no sign of the woman from the file. They walked over to the woman behind the cash register,

"Excuse me we're looking for someone who used to work here, maybe she still does, her name is Melissa Greystone"

"Ah yes I remember Melissa, she stopped working here 7 years ago, about 2 years after she got married"

"She got married, to who?"

"A lovely gentleman, his name was Tom I believe Tom Johnson"

"Do you know where she went after she left?"

"No I don't, I never heard from her again"

"Okay thank you very much"

Shalimar and Lexa left the store and walked round into the alley next to it, climbing the fire escape to the roof where they had left the Helix. They both went inside and took their seats as Lexa fired up the engines and piloted.

"Hey guys" Shalimar said activating the comm. Link.

"Go ahead Shalimar" came Adams voice.

"We found out Melissa Greystone stopped working at the clothes store 7 years ago after she got married to a man named Tom Johnson"

"Okay you girls head back to sanctuary we'll see what we can find out"

Jesse sat down at the computer in front of Adam and started a search for both Melissa and Tom Johnson.

"Okay I got nothing on Melissa but Tom was a big business guy, he was on the bored of directors at Marketers Ltd, they are a marketing company in New York. He died 3 months ago of a heart attack"

"Tell the girls to turn around and check out his company, they may have a current address for Melissa and keep looking, see if there's anything else you can find out"

Lexa looked over to Shalimar who was talking to another employee who was apparently a good friend of Tom Johnson. She looked back at the woman sitting across the desk from her.

"Tom always seemed like a nice guy and he was never anything but polite and courteous but…" she trailed off as if not sure she should carry on.

"But what?" Lexa prompted

"I only mat Melissa a couple of times but she always seemed so sad and I remember a couple of times she had bruises on her"

"Are you saying he beat her?"

"I don't know, I didn't know her real well, she could have just been clumsy but I got the impression it was him. The way she acted around him, it was like you'd expect a battered wife to be, quiet, obedient, she blended into the background and she could go completely unnoticed"

"Do you have any idea where she is now?"

"No, I haven't seen her since the funeral and even then she didn't talk to anybody, she just stood there quietly and then walked away when it was over"

"Okay thank you" Lexa stood up and walked over to the door and was joined a few moments later by Shalimar.

"He said Tom was a nice a guy and he hasn't heard from Melissa since the funeral"

"Well from what I was told Tom was nice to everyone except his wife, looks like he may have been beating her"

"You're kidding"

"No, but that would explain why she feels the need to have guys attack their wives, she's angry and she wants others to feel what she went through"

"Let's get back to sanctuary and see if the guys find out anything else"

"_Some people were looking for you today"_

"_Do you know who?"_

"_No I didn't speak to them"_

"_Did you see them?"_

"_Yeah it was two women, one blonde, one brunette, why, do you know them?"_

"_No but I know who they are, don't worry I'll take care of it, it was nice of you to stop by"_

"_Well I'll see you later and don't worry things will get better"_

"_Thanks"_


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, here's chapter 3, please enjoy it and thanks for all the reviews please keep them coming,

Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters

Chapter 3

Lexa found Jesse sitting at his computer, he looked up and smiled when she walked in and she walked over to him. He stood up and wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her passionately and she happily returned the kiss.

"Where's Shalimar?" he asked as they finally pulled apart but didn't move away from her.

"She went to find Brennan, did you find anything else?" she asked gesturing to the computer.

"No nothing" he replied as he moved away from her towards the computer "it's like she disappeared off the face of the…"

"Jesse?" she asked as he stopped mid sentence "Jesse…are you okay…Jesse" She took a step closer to him and he turned back to her and hit her so hard she hit the ground. "Jesse what the hell is wrong with…you". The sudden realisation hit her, Melissa had gotten to him. "Jesse fight it" she yelled as he picked her up and pushed her into a wall and ploughed his fist into her stomach, she let out a cry of pain but recovered in time to see him swinging at her again. She ducked below his arm and started to run through the corridors, she heard a crashing sound coming from Shalimar's bedroom and she ran in to find Shalimar standing up from the floor and Brennan charging at her. She heard Jesse charging from behind and moved out of the way at the last minute and Jesse went straight past her.

"Lex, Shal, get out here" she heard Adam's voice behind her and did as she was told; Shalimar dodged another attack from Brennan and joined her and Adam outside the room.

"Lexa close the door" Adam said as he hit some buttons on the computer panel he was carrying, Lexa once again did as she was told not really understanding why, Jesse could just phase through. Just as she let go of the door handle a light passed over the entire wall and both her and Shalimar looked at Adam.

"You remember when I went nuts and locked you, Jesse and Brennan behind that force field in the old sanctuary"

"Yeah" Shalimar nodded and Lexa recalled being told about the incident even though it had occurred before she had joined Mutant X.

"Well same principle, its mutant proof, they're installed in every wall, door, corridor, floor and ceiling in sanctuary in case we ever have a mutant intruder who can get through locked doors and normal force fields. It's never been used before though so I don't know how long it will stay up"

Shalimar and Lexa both nodded "We'd better find Melissa fast"

"Guys I found something" Lexa said with relief, they had been at this for five hours now and Brennan and Jesse were still locked up in Shalimar's bedroom and it didn't sound like they were getting tired out.

"What is it?"

"Take a look" she said as she gestured for both Adam and Shalimar to look at the screen in front of her "a few years after she married Tom all transactions in her account ceased, she didn't touch it for 4 years, my guess is she had everything she needed, groceries and bills probably came out of Tom's account since he was earning the money and she didn't feel like treating herself anymore. The money just sat there in her account until one month ago when she bought a small house a couple of miles south of New York"

"You think that's where she's hiding out"

"Probably, why else would she buy it, I mean everything her husband had belonged to her now, including the house she had lived in for seven years"

"That seems kinda sloppy, buying a house out of her own account"

"Well maybe when she bough it she wasn't planning to start attacking New Mutants, she just wanted to get away from everything that reminded her of her husband"

"Alright you girls go check that out"

"Will you be alright here on your own" Shalimar asked.

"I'll be fine, it's not me they're after"

"But they may use you to get to us, you have to come with us, if they get out then none of us can do anything whether we're here or not"


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, here's chapter 4 I hope you enjoy it, please read and review.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters

Chapter 4

Lexa landed the Helix in front of the house and they all got out and headed for the door. They heard a sound coming from the road and realised it was one of their cars.

"Brennan and Jesse got out"

"Adam go find Melissa, we'll hold them off"

Adam looked like he was about to protest but decided against it and went into the house. The car pulled up in front of them.

"How'd they get here so fast?"

"I have no idea"

They watched as Jesse and Brennan got out of the car and headed straight for them, Lexa and Shalimar both separated and the guys did too. Lexa ducked as Jesse charged at her with his fist but he landed another blow to her back before she was able to turn around.

Adam walked into a small room which was nicely decorated with warm colours, it looked like an ordinary room with sofas and a T.V, sitting on one of the sofas was a blonde woman who turned to face him.

"Adam Kane, how nice to meet you"

"Melissa Johnson"

"If you're here to stop me then you may as well turn around because I'm not stopping"

"Why are you doing this?"

"9 years, that's how long I was married for, the first year was great but then I couldn't take the lying anymore and I told Tom the truth about who I was, he was never the same after that. He took to beating me into submission; I spent 8 years having to hide not only who I was but what was happening to me and all because I was a mutant. If he hadn't had that heart attack I would have let him continue"

"Why didn't you use your powers to stop him?"

"I never used my powers on him once, I loved him and I wanted him to him to love me to, but of his own free will"

"Look I'm sorry for everything that happened to you but now you're hurting innocent people"

"They were New Mutants that were in happy healthy relationships either with other New Mutants or with normal people, that isn't fair. I had to suffer everyday in my relationship whilst they were all happy with people who accepted who they were and loved them anyway. I wanted them to feel the pain I had to go through when the person they thought loved them turns on them like a wild animal"

"No one should have to go through what you did and I could never understand what that did to you but you can't justify hurting all those people"

Shalimar ducked to avoid the Tesla coil Brennan through at her and then started to avoid the punches he through instead. She dodged one to the head but couldn't recover quick enough to avoid the one to her stomach. She could have stopped Brennan if she had wanted to, it would be simple for her to just knock him out and she was seriously considering it but every time she made a move to stop him she couldn't do it. She loved Brennan too much to hurt him even when he was under the mind control of a battered widow out to make the rest of the world pay for her pain. She took a quick glance over to Lexa who wasn't fairing as well as Shalimar was, she probably couldn't bring herself to fight back either but she didn't have Shalimar's feral ability to avoid Jesse's attacks. Brennan landed a punch to her face whilst she was distracted and Shalimar felt her lip start to bleed.

Lexa fell to the ground from the force of Jesse's fist; she was definitely not doing so well. She had managed to avoid Jesse's massed attacks as he was a little slower then but he didn't need to be massed to land a powerful punch. Every part of her body hurt and she was starting to move more slowly meaning Jesse could land more punches which only slowed her down even more.

"Jesse fight this please" She said, she knew it wouldn't work but she had to try something and she certainly wasn't about to fight back, she couldn't hit him even if he wasn't quite Jesse. As she predicted he seemed to not even notice the comment and carried on with his attack. She dodged his foot as he tried to plough it into her stomach and managed to get to her feat and dodge his punch only to be hit by his next one.

"Please you have to stop this now"

"I don't have to do anything, not anymore"

Adam wasn't getting any where with her and Shalimar and Lexa could only hold off Brennan and Jesse for so long. They wouldn't fight back he was sure of that, they would just avoid their attacks and take whatever punches that the guys landed. He knew she didn't need to be conscious to control her powers because her subconscious took over after the connection was established but if he could stop her using her powers all together that might work, he just had to get close enough to use the sub dermal governor.

"Why haven't you used your power to stop me, to make me leave?" She stared at him blankly as he took a couple of steps toward her, she obviously couldn't answer that. "See what I think is you want me to stop you, some part of you realises that what you're doing is wrong that you don't really want all these people to feel the kind of pain you went through" He took another couple of steps toward her he was standing right in front of her now. She still hadn't answered him; clearly he had struck a nerve. He took the opportunity whilst he was distracted and grabbed her arm, he fired a sub dermal governor into her neck and she jerked away from him.

"What have you done? I'm losing the connections"

"It's time to let go of what he did to you, you have no powers anymore and I'm not going to remove the sub dermal governor at least not until I can be sure you won't use your powers to hurt anyone"

Jesse picked Lexa up of the floor, he had landed his massed fist into her stomach, and she had almost avoided it so he hadn't caused as much damage as he could have, as he was going to this time. He held her up by her arm, she was still conscious but in no condition to offer any kind of resistance he massed his fist and pulled his arm back.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter 5 the final chapter I hope you enjoy it and thanks for all the reviews, they really motivated me to keep writing this. Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Mutant X or any of its characters.

Chapter 5

All of a sudden Jesse was in control again, he stopped himself a moment before his massed fist hit her face.

"Oh my God Lexa" he knelt down on the ground holding Lexa in his arms. He looked at her, she was covered in cuts and bruises even her clothes held the tell tale mark of being on the losing end of a fight, he had done that to her.

"Jesse?" her voice was quiet and shaky.

"Yeah Lex it's me, I am so sorry"

"Not your fault" Jesse watched helplessly as Lexa lost consciousness.

"Shall I am so sorry" Brennan held Shalimar as tightly as he could she had a couple of cuts and bruises, cuts and bruises that he would never be able to forgive himself for causing but she was okay.

"Brennan it's not your fault okay" Brennan had regained control of his body in time to stop himself hurling one hell of a powerful Tesla coil at Shalimar, one he could tell would have hit her. Shalimar pulled away and looked over to where Jesse was holding Lexa, she ran over and Brennan was right behind her.

"Oh no" she said as she sat down next to Lexa and took in the phenomenally long list of injuries Lexa had sustained and the guilt ridden look on Jesse's face. "Jesse this isn't your fault okay and Lexa will be fine as soon as we can get her back to Sanctuary. They all turned and saw Adam come out of the house followed by a very angry looking Melissa. He immediately ran over and bent down next to Shalimar.

"We need to get her back to Sanctuary, Shalimar you drive Melissa back to sanctuary in the car, the rest of us will go in the Helix"

Brennan watched as Jesse picked Lexa up in his arms and Adam made Shalimar promise not to kill or injure Melissa in any way before they headed to the Helix.

Shalimar was sitting on the sofa next to Brennan who had spent every second since they got back to Sanctuary 5 hours ago apologising.

"Brennan listen to me, it was not your fault, I don't blame you but if you apologise to me once more _I'm _going to kill _you_"

Brennan nodded his head and put his arm around her shoulders pulling her closer to him before kissing her forehead.

"You know I love you right?"

"Of course I know, I love you to"

"Well she's gone" Adam said as he walked into the room "Melissa has been admitted to a psych ward and can get the treatment she needs, hopefully she'll come out of there feeling less inclined to make men beat up their better half's and I can remove the sub dermal governor"

"How's Lexa doing?"

"Better, she's a quick healer; she should wake up any second"

"What about Jess?"

"He's killing himself over this, I think the only person who's gonna be able to convince him this wasn't his fault is Lexa"

"No I don't think anything Lexa says is going to convince him this wasn't his fault and make him feel any better about it" Brennan said solemnly from next to Shalimar and she turned to look at him before putting her arms around him.

"Jesse?"

Jesse's head snapped up as he heard Lexa voice, he had been sitting at the side of her bed in the med lab since they had got back.

"Hey"

"Shalimar?" she asked as she forced herself to sit up.

"She's fine, last I saw Brennan was following her around apologising every 5 seconds"

"You're not gonna start are you because I have a had headache and I don't want to listen to you apologising for something that is not your fault and that I don't blame you for"

"But Lex look what I did to you"

"It wasn't you Jess"

"I nearly killed you, another second and I would have, I can never forgive myself for what I did to you"

"Jesse there's nothing to forgive okay? You didn't kill me I'm still here and it wasn't you who did this to me it was Melissa"

"I love you, you know that right?"

"Yes I know that and I love you too"

Lexa lifted herself of the bed and sat on Jesse's lap, he put his arms around her back and held her as tightly as he could, her arms went around his neck and she held him back. She pulled back and kissed him gently and Jesse responded still holding her as tightly as he could but being mindful of her injuries.

"You know the med labs probably not the best place for that" They both turned and saw Adam, Brennan and Shalimar coming in. Brennan seemed to have stopped apologising, probably because Shalimar had threatened him if he didn't. Lexa didn't move from his lap but she did pull back a little.

"You look better" Shalimar stated

"Thanks are _you_ okay?"

"I'm fine"

"Well I'm starving who's up for dinner" Brennan announced.

"Why is always you who declares they're hungry?" Shalimar asked laughing.

Brennan shrugged and headed out the door, Shalimar and Adam followed him and Jesse helped Lexa stand up and walk out the door towards the kitchen. At least things were getting back to normal.


End file.
